The Sky's The Limit
by Ultimanium
Summary: Look at everyone else, chasing carrots on sticks. Everyone else is busy fighting tooth and nail for material goods, false friendships, and selfpurpose they can't even find by themselves. I don't want that to be the case for you.


A pair of stubby legs hurriedly clomped up the stone stairs leading into the skies. Blitzen-Aitzen thought about using the elevators in the residential district of Jeuno to hurry his ascent, as even after years of service in the Ducal Guard, he often found himself out of breath after (or during) any attempt to take the manual way up to the Ru'Lude Gardens. But as he had the displeasure of hearing the night before, there were rumors that one of the pulley systems used in one of the shafts had snapped due to overuse. Even if it were proven false, Blitzen knew that with the amount of traffic that poured in and out of the Rent-a-Rooms commonly ticketed to travelers, merchants, passing diplomats, soldiers and mercenaries, the event would be long overdue. 

Blitzen exited out into open air once more, clanking across the sandstone, and used the last of his energy to hoist himself onto a nearby bench. He ran a hand through his head of moppy brown hair as his breathing returned to normal. Years of a mutual alliance between the nations of the world did nothing to make the terrace crossed every day by the leaders of the demi-human world more hospitable to a Tarutaru. Eventually Blitzen resumed his march to the grand palace of Jeuno, dressed in the same kind of white-plated, gold-trimmed armor the remainder of the Guard wore, which continued to drive the point home - while it took some adjustment and hemming on the armorer's part to change the standard plan of the guard armor, in order to fit someone half the size of most other people, the plating itself was still as nearly as dense as larger suits of it. Blitzen kept wearing it diligently. It built character and gave him a good workout, as he'd say. It'd give him an edge when he had to inevitably compare himself to other members of the guard - typically Humes and Elvaan. There were several Galka in the force, but Blitzen never had much of a chance to determine anything about them, as they were usually shoved off to patrol the lower tiers of the city.

And compare himself he would; as would happen every day, he'd get confused glances from other people visiting the Gardens, including other guards, wondering what allowed Blitzen access to the Guard. His broadsword, of the regulated length and girth of the blades all the other guards kept hidden, was strapped across his back as opposed to resting on his belt as was the norm. Letting it scrape against the ground took valuable years off the sword's life.

The archduke, or his brother, wouldn't be at the palace today, or any day thereafter. Blitzen was told to keep quiet about the situation until more facts were revealed about their disappearance, but Blitzen knew full well what had happened. He himself was part of it. No one would really figure out what happened, but Blitzen did a great service to the world. Another service that would ultimately go unannounced.

Today, he thought, he would speak to his friend, someone who had a closer idea of what he was worth.

Blitzen made his way through the bottom floor of the palace, ignoring the stares he got from the housekeepers and the other guards. Occaisionally he'd receive a nod of approval, but usually he was too blind to notice.

Out the back entrance of the archduke's chambers, which was as large if not larger than the front archway for reasons Blitzen never fully understood, a small manor was perched on the edge of the Gardens. Blitzen had never seen anyone actually enter or leave the abode with the exception of the same one or two servants. A large man stood along the left side of the pathway, waving a large watering can back and forth over top of the hedge that bordered the walkway. On the other side it extended out a short ways, and a set of stone benches were laid out, facing each other. Standing with his arms slumped over a stone wall was an old man, dressen in worn blue pants and a vest of the same color, both patched up beyond repair. A blue beret sat on his head, visibly newer than anything else on him. Blitzen made no noise, simply sitting himself down on one of the benches. Soon enough, the man glanced over his shoulder and quickly spun around to face his visitor.

"I was wondering when you were gonna stop by again!" he laughed, swinging his fist at Blitzen in a mock punch. "I told you before that I like seeing my alumni alive, kicking, and prosperous, preferably in that order. Well Blitzen, how's it been?"

Blitzen slowly tilted his head up, heaving a sigh. "You never change, Maat."

"Well that's what wrinkly decaying men are known for, are they not?" Maat lowered himself down onto the bench adjacent to Blitzen, leaning forward and slapping a hand on his lap. "Good to see you back though, most people spar with me and never talk to me again, knowing that they either got beaten by said wrinkly decaying man, or met my standards and knew that I could get the jump on them if luck'd swung the other way."

"...two weeks ago you said that I'd make a fine addition to the Ducal Guard..." Blitzen stared more directly at Maat. "Why was that?"

"You're asking me? You're the one that marched up to me, stuck a finger in my gut and told me I was Quadav chow, though I might as well have called YOU Quadav chow at the time because you've got all the long-term memory of it. You boasted to me how you'd developed both as a swordsman and a worker of the white arts, and you're perfectly satisfactory in both, if our final chance encounter two weeks ago showed anything. So why are you here now? I know your little tricks now, you don't want a sound beating, do you?"

"You said I was satisfactory at the time, though I don't feel like proving that to you again."

"Big words." Maat chuckled.

"...I just wanted to know what was next, that's all."

"That's not something I can tell you, m'boy," Maat pushed himself back up, wandering back over to his lookout. "Now that you and I are on amicable terms so to speak, I doubt there's anything I can tell you about your limits that someone else doesn't know. Up to you to roll with the punches."

Blitzen slowly stood. "I'm perfectly happy with being with the Ducal Guard. I just wonder sometimes about all the other people I've met on my travels... where they're going, what they're doing. I remember a long time ago, when I strolled out of the front gates of Bastok telling myself that I was just going to 'adventure'... it seems like a stark contrast to where I am now, with all of my unorganized ventures behind me."

"What makes you say you're done?" Maat glanced over his shoulder.

"Well, I guess that's a bad way to put it..." Blitzen mumbled. "I'm just not certain of what I'm supposed to be doing now. I get letters from people I've met all the time, talking about all the amazing expeditions they go on, all the uncharted areas of Vana'diel they rampage through, all the beasts they flatten in doing so, and on and on and on..."

"Oh. I get this." Maat finally turned around. "You're angry at yourself because you see all these people experiencing things that you aren't, and your hunger for adventure is stirred... I've heard the same thing said many times before. In fact, I've experienced it myself, in my youth and even now. I'm glad you brought this to my attention, Blitzen. I really wish I had the pleasure of hearing about this situation more often."

Blitzen blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?" Blitzen flinched as Maat turned to face him, who now was looking more distraught than he had ever seen him.

"...y'know Blitzen... well, of course you know, but it's important to say in this context... this world has a lot of chaos in it. All the time people leap headfirst into that chaos, either trying to figure out exactly what it is. If it's a bad thing, it's warded away. If it's good, it's brought back and discovered for the good of the world. After the Crystal War, the three nations started shuffling all the military personnel into obscurity. In essence, everyone had lost any sort of offensive force they had gathered while they battled alongside each other. People are curious creatures, and with travel bans at their most lax in years and no armed forces to do the exploration for them, they became compelled to see the world around them. That was the age of adventurers, people under indirect command of the nations to see the outside. People like you broke out of their shells, forcing their way out into the wild to fight for their worth, in both the eyes of themselves and the people around them. As we found out, they would find the wrongs of the world and destroy them, as they would be the ones to discover the plans of the Kindred and eventually give the second incarnation of the Shadow Lord its necessary whupping. Along they way, they'd learn about themselves, their environment, and everyone they encountered."

"What does this have to do with my current state?"

"You're a product of your own experience," Maat finished. "All these people you say you know and get constant feedback from are people you wouldn't have met otherwise. Now tell me, you took a request from the Bastokan embassy to enter the Crawler's Nest and exterminate a number of the beasts to ease damage to the rolanberry crops nearby, this was years back in your early squirehood. And when you were critically injured by one of the fighter crawlers, the white mage that tended to your wounds was the Tarutaru, just like you, that would eventually go on to become your wife."

Blitzen nodded. "That's right."

"Now you care for her deeply of course... she's obviously an ongoing occurance in your life, being married to her and whatnot... what do you two do now?"

"She was from San d'Oria, and eventually we both moved to Jeuno so I could continue taking jobs from the Bastokan embassy while she practiced commercial medicine. We still do. She brought her one son from a previous marriage."

"What do you think they think of you?"

"...well, that's something I'll never know 100. But, we're all still here, so I assume everything is okay."

Maat let his head rest on his hands. "But everything isn't okay. You're moping around Jeuno hoping something exciting happens, and you secretly wish that you were out slaying dragons or whatnot. But on the other hand, you can't abandon who you've already declared your loyalty to. Or, should I say, what experiences you hold most dear. What you don't understand though, is how natural your state of affairs is."

"It is?" Blitzen watched uneasily as Maat slumped down yet again on his perch.

"...Blitzen, do you know what people come to me for? They want me to give them my badge of approval. I don't know why though, it's not like any of them keep adventuring anymore. I know what you've been up to, Blitzen. I don't think Kam'lanaut stood a chance against you and your buddies."

Blitzen's heart stopped.

"Oh c'mon, put a little trust in me... I might be able to figure things out about you that even you don't know, but I'm not going to go sell them to the highest bidder. Your secrets are safe with me, Blitzen, I also knew things about the Archduke that most people in Jeuno, or the world for that matter, wouldn't acknowledge unless they saw it with their own beady eyes. Unfortuantely, knowledge of the existence of Tu'lia is already in the wrong hands. People are beginning to pillage its secrets, and they're liking what they're finding. Ancient treasures that would make any man rich beyond his wildest dreams. Very quickly that mindset's starting to stretch to the masses, too. People are beginning to scour this world for anything shiny that their forefathers might've missed. This adventuring isn't an adventure anymore, Blitzen. People aren't finding new frontiers anymore, they're just strip-mining the old ones. People are out for their own personal gain, not seeing what other lessons lie in front of them. The fact that you're coming to me concerned over your livelihood confirms two things."

"What's that?" Blitzen asked.

"One, you're always looking for new experiences. That's a good thing. Two, you're slowly falling into the trap that so many other people have. You left the gates of Bastok looking for new experiences, but now you're just looking for everyone else's. That's a mistake that's been made more times than I can count. And trust me, I can count pretty damn high. You're dissatisfied with your life, Blitzen. There's no shame in admitting that. But look at everyone else, chasing carrots on sticks. Everyone else is busy fighting tooth and nail for material goods, false friendships, and self-purpose they can't even find by themselves. They're all busy scrapping in Tu'lia or wherever. For them, the sky is literally the limit. I don't want that to be the case for you. If you're ready to move on, Blitzen, past all this crap that everyone else concerns them with, then do so. That's potential that everyone has, although only some have the inherent ability to accept that."

"Y-you're absolutely right," Blitzen quickly jumped back to his feet. "I'm going to treat every experience of mine as a new adventure, that only I get to take part in... and I'll profit from each and every one of them, regardless of what anyone says..."

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Actually, that's exactly what I want to hear from anyone I meet, but even know well enough not to assume that of everyone... I really wish that I could pass that tidbit of knowledge onto all those that I've encountered... but obviously I'm too withered to accomplish that, no matter what excuses I make. How about you be my ambassador? Whaddya say? Well too bad, I'm making you one anyways." Maat reached up, grabbing his beret and slapping it down on top of Blitzen. "There you go. I want you to tell everyone what adventure is all about. You know, when I'm immediately around to slap people into shape. Got it?"

Blitzen nodded. "You know full well I do the slapping just as well as you."

"Ohhh, I don't think you've seen a real slap. Now go, get out of here. Go on your quests. Like I said, the sky's the limit to them, but it's REALLY the limit to you. Remember to take your wifey too. They get ornery when they don't know what's going on."

Blitzen was already on his way back into the palace, glancing at Maat over his shoulder and saluting. "Anything else that I already know?"

Maat sighed. "Bring pastries."

_Within three days I'd heard that Blitzen had resigned from the Ducal Guard. His linkpearl was found in his home however, which had been abandoned with most of his family's goods intact. I'd never heard about his son, though from paperwork found in the home he was a young adult that had already moved out. But I'm getting ahead of myself here... I eventually learned that he had recorded our conversation on it, and kept it there the entire time, as the pearl wasn't physically designed to hold any more sound than that. The act of resonating several minutes of conversation on the pearl had already damaged it beyond repair._

_Beyond that, Blitzen's little home sandwiched somewhere in Lower Jeuno was void of life, and as time passed I realized I'd never have the opportunity to speak with him again or meet his family._

_He must be having one hell of an adventure._

**fin**

**Dedicated to Sheekstarr/Firestarter of Seraph**


End file.
